Many of us operate by the book. By following what others are doing, we often think that we can also reproduce their success. But if everyone is doing the same things, success becomes stagnant and far from reach. A law firm is just like any other business — tried and tested methods work, but you don’t have to rely on them all the way.
Break away from the blueprint; take the road less travelled and carve your path. It will be scary, and it will be challenging. But it will open the doors to your success.
In this episode, immigration lawyer Jacob Sapochnick joins us to share his journey in starting and running a law firm. The guiding principle that helped him find success is to do what others are not doing. He shares helpful advice in managing employees, building teams, fostering leads, and systemizing the business process. Jacob also shares the reason why you should start giving away resources for free.
This episode is for you if you want to know the best practices to implement to run your law firm or business the enchanting way!
Here are three reasons why you should listen to the full episode:
- Find out why steering away from the herd opens doors to winning opportunities.
- Learn how you can apply the three principles of the enchanting way to your law firm or business.
- Discover the benefits of giving away resources for free.
Resources
- Enchanting Lawyer Podcast
- My American Job by Jacob Sapochnick
- Visa Lawyer Blog
- Jacob’s YouTube Channel
- InfusionSoft
- SweetProcess
- Youtility by Jay Baer
- Nice Companies Finish First by Peter Shankman
- The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk
- Social Media Marketing World
- Enchanting Lawyer Podcast Episode 50: Leadership, Excellence and Giving with Dr. William Dorfman
- Choose Yourself! by James Altucher
Episode Highlights
Starting His Law Firm
- If there’s no tool or information about something you need, you have to make or do it.
- He started his law firm in 2004. He did it because he wasn’t happy with his job, and he wanted to do something on his own.
- Attorneys fall into the same patterns when starting a practice and marketing, making it difficult to find success.
- Jacob realized that he shouldn't follow the herd when it comes to his law firm.
Starting a Legal Blog
- He started one of the first legal blogs in California, called the Visa Lawyer Blog.
- Three to four months after starting the blog, he got a call from Fox News. They needed an immigration expert for the evening news.
- Doing things differently created an opportunity for him to be in the media, including newspapers and other TV stations.
Shifting to Other Platforms
- When blogging became common for attorneys, Jacob decided to do something different.
- He started posting videos on YouTube in 2010. He also realized that no attorney was using Facebook, so he started using it.
- Within a year, he was able to build a proprietary community on Facebook with over 117,000 members.
- You will not have to compete with anybody if you build your audience. Jacob’s law firm gets four to five leads a day from Facebook alone.
Nurturing Leads and Employees
- Once you figure out how to get leads, you have to provide the level of service they deserve.
- When employees are happy, they’re able to provide good service to the customers.
- How you treat employees matters more than how much money you pay them. When you are nice to your employees, they are nice to the customers.
- Jacob started a freedom policy. If somebody can’t make it to work for whatever reason, they have to make it up once they already can.
- Giving employees validation gives them ownership of the law firm where they work.
Three Principles of the Enchanting Way
- Generate leads: You have to provide free, valuable, and consistent content.
- Systemize: Set up a system to direct leads throughout different channels.
- Empower employees to make decisions: This will lead to improved retention levels, and clients will feel more comfortable doing transactions with them.
- Listen to the full episode to learn more about the importance of empowering employees and avoiding being a policeman at your law firm or business!
Navigating the Biggest Challenges
- The key is learning how to deal with people. If you can’t assess the personality of the employee you’re working with, you won’t connect level-to-level.
- When interviewing people for a position at his law firm, Jacob asks uncommon questions to connect with the applicant.
- Systemization is key. Jacob learned that you have to immediately change a process when it doesn't work.
- Jacob’s law firm uses SweetProcess to document and share their processes with the team.
Jacob’s Book Recommendations
- Youtility by Jay Baer talks about marketing as a utility to help people as opposed to pushing sales.
- Tune in to the episode to discover the apps Jacob created, following the principles of Youtility!
- Nice Companies Finish First by Peter Shankman is about customer service.
- The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk changed the way Jacob deals with his business.
Building a Team
- Listen to your team members and implement their ideas. When you do, they feel that they can trust you.
- You have to build trust; empowerment cannot happen until there’s trust.
- Then, you can start assigning team leaders and do trial projects that the team can take on.
- Instead of preaching, give control during meetings by delegating people.
- Tune in to the episode to discover what team culture looks like in Jacob’s law firm!
Jacob’s Winning Habits
- The most critical things for Jacob are to listen, be patient, and be nice.
- Being nice to his employees helped create an alliance between them.
- Having these traits have helped him face a lot of failures, focus, and guide other attorneys.
The Best Advice He Has Gotten
- Do what others are not doing; do the opposite of what people in your field are doing.
- Don't reinvent the wheel; copy the best things others are doing and put your unique spin on it.
Why You Should Give Away Resources for Free
- You can overwhelm the public by providing so much value. Then they subconsciously perceive you as an expert.
- Jacob puts articles, videos, podcasts, and other resources because he wants to help people.
- People can find information online today whether you give it to them or not. Tune in to the episode to learn about Jacob’s new experiment around referring competitor law firms!
- Jacob believes that you’re providing more value for yourself by giving away resources because people will come to you anyway.
Life Lessons Learned
- Jacob learned not to dwell over failures.
- Choose Yourself! by James Altucher says that nothing else will work around you if you don't choose yourself.
- The book recommends writing down ten ideas every day as a way of training your brain.
- Jacob’s coffee shop concept came from applying this practice.
2 Powerful Quotes
“You really have to find a way that the employees feel that you care about them, because then once they feel that, then they will go out there and do the same to your customers.”
“What you do is you overwhelm the public by providing so much value, that they perceive you as an expert in their subconscious, where there's no other way anybody can convince them not to hire you.”
About Jacob
Jacob Sapochnick is an immigration lawyer and savvy marketer who enjoys combining law, technology, and social media to educate people. As an active member of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, Jacob had spoken several times on immigration law topics at various national and international conferences. He has been quoted in popular publications and has done several interviews on immigration issues.
Jacob is also the host of the Enchanting Lawyer Podcast and produces the Enchanting Lawyer Blog.
If you wish to connect with Jacob, you may send him an email at jacob@enchantinglawyer.com. You may also visit his website and follow him on Twitter.
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PS.
- Do you already have a successful business, meaning you're up, running, and paying your bills with some profit left over?
- Are you interested in growing your business, automating/streamlining things, and staying one step ahead of your competition?
📨 If you can answer YES to all these questions, please reach out to me through https://www.members.bestbusinesscoach.ca/problems-we-fix/ and describe your situation, goals, and the best time/way to contact you.
